


Baby, It's You

by susanowa (panickyintheuk)



Series: Inconveniences Rightly Considered [7]
Category: Marvel Adventures (Comics), Marvel Adventures: Avengers, Marvel Adventures: Iron Man
Genre: First Kiss, Identity Reveal, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 12:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7641043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panickyintheuk/pseuds/susanowa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iron Man has an announcement!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby, It's You

**Author's Note:**

> For bingo square O5, 'coming out'.
> 
> For those keeping track, this brings us up to MA:A #2. #1 happened offscreen somewhere back there (probably. Or maybe some of the issues are in non-chronological order. I would argue that #37 makes at least as much, if not more, sense if you read it as happening earlier in the run, for example). So we're now post-MA:IM and during MA:A!! Exciting!!

Tony waited until he was sure that Steve had left, then pressed his intercom. "Bambi, something urgent just came up. I'm not to be disturbed until further notice."

He made his way to the hidden panel in the wall which opened to an elevator that took him to his private lab, where he kept about half of his armors. The alert was for an incident at an Oceanic Research Station, but he hoped that it wouldn't call for his deep-sea over-armor, because he didn't keep that here. He picked the one with the best water resistance and took off, assuring the team that he was on his way.

**

What had initially seemed like a simple enough mission had quickly become more complicated. Of course, that happened _every single time_ , so he really should have seen it coming. When they finally got back to the tower, Spider-Man's costume was stiff with dried-in salt, and Bruce was clearly exhausted, practically asleep on Logan's shoulder. Tony wasn't exactly feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed himself. But there was never going to be a perfect time, and he needed to do this sooner rather than later.

"Mind if we keep the debrief snappy?" said Steve. "I have somewhere to be."

"Actually," Tony jumped in, before Storm could agree, "I have an announcement I want to make."

"Can it wait, Iron Man?" Steve asked.

"That depends," said Tony. "I don't mean to be presumptuous, but this thing you have to do -- it wouldn't involve Mr Stark, would it?"

Steve's shoulders stiffened a little. "As a matter of fact, it would," he said cautiously.

"Then it probably shouldn't wait."

Suddenly Steve's whole demeanor changed. "Has something happened? Is Tony okay?"

Tony sighed inwardly. Ever since the accident, Steve had been protective, if not _over_ protective. It was sweet, in a way, but it couldn't carry on. If anything, this might make things worse, but it had to happen anyway. "He's fine. Actually -- oh, jeez -- " his stomach was roiling even worse than it had been when he'd been stuck inside the giant tunicate earlier, but maybe it was better to rip off this band-aid quickly rather than drawing it out.

"I'm sorry it's taken me so long to do this," he said. "I hope you don't think it reflects on my level of trust for you. There's only one other person who knows. But if I can't trust my team, who can I trust?"

He lifted off his helmet.

His team looked back at him, some shocked, some conspicuously not.

Spider-Man was one of the shocked ones. "Whaaaat?" he said.

Ororo, less so. "I had long suspected this might be the case," she said.

"I hadn't," said Jan, "but I guess it makes a lot of sense now I think about it. Except --" 

"But I've _seen_ you together!" Steve interrupted, finally finding his voice. "At -- wait, that was Colonel Rhodes in the suit at your birthday party?" Tony nodded. "That's _cheating_! I would have figured it out if it weren't for that!"

Tony laughed, because _cheating_ , honestly, but then he took a good look at Steve's face, and he stopped. "Are you okay? What's --"

Steve didn't let him finish, just fled the room. Tony's heart sank. Of course, he'd known this was a possibility. He'd been lying to them all. But he'd hoped that Steve would understand. He'd done this for him, when it came down to it -- so they could start things off without there being any secrets between them. And now he'd ruined everything, and they wouldn't be starting anything at all. But it was better for it to fall apart now than later, he supposed. It was cold comfort.

"If we're going around the group," said Logan, "I never cared, and I still don't."

"Shut _up_ , idiot," said Bruce, elbowing him in the side. "Tony, go after Cap!"

Tony did.

* * *

Steve stood in the hallway which led to his room. He leaned pensively against the wall with his hands behind him, eyes fixed on the floor. He was utterly mortified.

As he'd pretty much expected, Iron Man -- _Tony_ \-- wasn't all that far behind him. His footfalls were heavy in the armor, and he stopped, uncertain, a few feet away.

"Were you making fun of me?" asked Steve. He couldn't quite bring himself to meet Tony's eyes.

" _What_? Of course not!" Tony paused. "I mean, all right, I was having a little fun at everyone's expense. It was hard not to. But it was never supposed to be mean-spirited, and it was certainly never aimed at you."

"But you knew how I felt about you this whole time," Steve said, "and you just let me go on and on --"

He heard Tony take a deep breath and blow it out. "Okay. I didn't know for sure. First of all, I really don't think you 'went on' as much as you seem to think you did. And the things you said to me -- I mean, the things you said to Iron Man about Tony Stark? They were ambiguous enough that I wasn't sure I wasn't just hearing what I wanted to hear."

"Wanted?" Steve said hopefully.

Tony nodded. "And then today, when I was sure, I knew what you were going to say to me, and I was _so_ tempted to just let you go ahead -- you have no idea -- but I just didn't think it would be fair to let anything happen before I... came clean. And now. Here we are."

"Here we are," Steve echoed.

"So..." Tony winced. "I guess I know the answer, but I have to ask. Are you still interested?"

Steve's head shot up, looking at him properly for the first time. It was jarring -- not only seeing Tony in the armor, but also seeing Iron Man with his helmet off. It was like a photograph with double exposure. "Tony, of course! You really like me that way?"

"I didn't think I being so subtle about it," said Tony, shrugging a shoulder. Steve couldn't help but stare at the way the armor moved seamlessly with his body -- Iron Man had always been impressive, of course, but he was seeing him in a new light now.

"Well, it's like you said. I wasn't sure if it wasn't just wishful thinking. And this --" he swept his hand up and down, gesturing at Tony in the Iron Man suit -- "was certainly a surprise. It's going to take a little getting used to, but it's... kind of great, actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean... I didn't think I could like either of you more, but..." he shook his head.

Tony stepped in close to him. "So... do you think I could kiss you? I've wanted to for a while."

He was taller than Steve, in the suit, and Steve felt his eyes go wide as he tilted his head back. "Yes, definitely, yes," he said, his voice little more than a whisper.

Tony leaned on the wall, armor-encased arms boxing Steve in, and suddenly Steve's heart was pounding in his ears. When he kissed Steve, it was light and tender, lips just barely open. That was probably a mercy -- Steve already felt as though he might slide down the wall if Tony stepped away. That wasn't to say he didn't want more, though.

"My room," he said, fumbling for his key card and pressing it against Iron Man's chest. Tony took it and abruptly turned away, Steve following close behind with a hand on his shoulder. Once they were through the door, Tony spun and pushed Steve against it as it closed, kissing him harder. He hitched Steve's leg up around his waist, and Steve heard himself moaning.

"Wait," he said, "how strong are you right now?"

"Well, strong enough to lift you, if I engage the hydraulics. You know that." Right, of course, Steve did know that. He'd never thought about it in this context before, though. Tony looked down at himself. "But I can't really..."

"Right, yeah," said Steve. They could revisit that later; Tony's actual body was much more of a priority right now. "Get it off," he said, pulling at the joins of the suit.

"Hey, slow down. You break it, you bought it."

"You can just take it out of my wages, boss-man."

"Whoa, are you _way_ more kinky than I thought you were?"

Steve shrugged. "Probably. That a problem?"

"Nope," said Tony with a predatory grin.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, ~fade to black~. I'm sorry! I swear I don't have anything against sex scenes, they just take me forever to write. I fully plan to include at LEAST one E-rated story in this series, eventually.
> 
> Also, I changed my mind - this is now going to be the last story I post in this series for the current round of bingo. I have one more story nearly complete that was written for my current card, but since it doesn't actually help me achieve bingo and it takes place way at the end of the run, I've decided to hold it in reserve for the time being.
> 
> Again, let me know if I made any silly mistakes, and find me at shiningredandgold.tumblr.com.


End file.
